Republican parties in important swing states are falling behind

STANDING ON A podium in a pink hotel ballroom Kristina Karamo, the chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, addressed a group of Republican university students. “I first got my start in politics on a college campus,” she said. “I picked up a book called ‘The Politics of Population Control’, and I learned that…the abortion movement…was a plot to lower the human population.” So began the 35th Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference.As recently as 2015, six presidential hopefuls ventured to the quaint, car-free island known for its sickly-sweet fudge to campaign at the regular gathering of party bigwigs. This year the lone presidential candidate in attendance was Vivek Ramaswamy, who is polling at less than 7%. The rest of the programme, with mostly obscure speakers who railed against evolution, the deep state and “stolen” elections, reflected a populist makeover and descent into conspiracism that has come to characterise many state Republican parties since Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016.